I always know where I am in a solar adobe house designed by Mark Chalom: north, south, east, and west are precisely marked, with walls, doors, windows, and occupants perfectly aligned with the sun.

When I first met Chalom in the early 1970s, he was a young architect working on the Sundwellings solar-adobe demonstration project at Ghost Ranch, a conference center near Abiquiu, New Mexico. After watching the construction of the four simple test buildings, my husband and I knew that when it came time to build our own home, we would use the solar-adobe design principles that Chalom and the Sundwellings team developed and tested in those first solar casitas at Ghost Ranch.

Two decades passed before we were ready to build our own home on a piece of high desert land near Abiquiu. Chalom was now a seasoned architect with his own firm in Santa Fe, Solar Design and Analysis, Inc., but he was still as enthusiastic and involved with grassroots solar home design and construction as he had been when he arrived in New Mexico in 1974.

Chalom’s involvement with us began with several visits to our future home site, during which he became as familiar with its nuances of sand, rock, cliff, hill, slope, sun, and shadow as we were. We gave Chalom a simple drawing of the home we envisioned, and over the next several months we worked together to create the design and layout of an efficient, beautiful solar adobe home that fit the place and us perfectly.

 

 

 

We live beneath a mesa that was once the site of a prehistoric community. The sun was both ally and enemy to the people of prehistory; understanding the movements of the sun was essential for successful human survival. Prehistoric dwellings were positioned using a basic knowledge of the seasonal positions of the sun, and how its energy could be enhanced in the winter and diminished in summer. The ancient people understood that capturing and absorbing the low winter sun on floors and walls meant a warmer home in the coldest months, while an overhang blocking the high summer sun kept the dwelling cool throughout the hot months.

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